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Tuesday, May 09, 2006 7:01 AM PT Posted by Laura Blackwell
Hello Windows Live Messenger! Bye-bye MSN Messenger?
It's alive! The beta of Windows Live Messenger, the next generation of MSN Messenger, is now available in public beta. If you've been one of the private beta testers, you've got lots of company now. (And if you'd rather not switch to beta software, don't fret: MSN Messenger 7.5 remains available.)I've been playing with the WLM beta, which bears a strong resemblance to MSN Messenger 7.5. Since PC World liked MSN Messenger 7.5 in our instant messenger roundup, that's a good thing by me. Overall, WLM's looks subtler, with its smaller icons and softer, less arresting colors. A search box makes finding your contacts online a little bit easier. You can nickname your contacts, too, so you can call them by…er, whatever you usually call your friends and co-workers.
Of the new features, the one that sticks out the most for me is the Sharing Folders feature. It's a very simple drag-and-drop file sharing method that gives you updates on files as they upload. Its activity log lets you see what files have gone into that folder. You can integrate your antivirus software to scan files in it, if you like. A dialog box also warns you about sharing anything that might be copyrighted material.
If any of you are using the Windows Live Messenger beta, tell PC World what you think of it. Do you like it better than MSN Messenger? Worse? Or is it about the same to you?
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I just up graded to Live Beta and I think that the new features are easier to use and much better
Hey,
I've been using Windows Live Messenger for a while now, and I LOVE it. It has a simpler design and everything looks and feels more professional. The features are pretty much the same, the one thing that I LOVE, that wasn't included in the last MSN Messenger I used is the leaving offline messages feature, it used to drive me crazy when I couldn't send offline messages to people on MSN but I could on Yahoo! So glad it's fixed, I recommend LIve to EVERYONE!
Kizz
I second that emotion about the offline messages, it makes it a 100% more useable program. Sometimes I know someone isn't going to be online when I am for a while, so I want to leave them a note, not an "email", just a note - offline messages lets you do this.
Dante
One thing I like about it is that in conversations, if you type more than one line of text before the person responds, it doesn't repeat the "[your name] says:". Small thing, but it erases some clutter.
I have used it today..one problem that i faced with it is that whenever i want to share my desktop with multiple persons in my contact list(during a conference) simultaneously i cant do that.....this would be a really nice feature......i would urge the developers to kindly look into the same....
Yeah, like Kizz and Dante said, I too wanted the offline messages feature and I had been sending some suggestions regarding the same to the Tech Support guys. Thanks to the WLM developers to have included this feature. Now, WLM rocks.
Thank God, Microsoft Woke up, thanks to the competition.
LOL, i second Randhir Reddy there... Offline messaging has been availiable on Yahoo since forever... though, i wish MS stop playig catch up and get infront of everyone else.
Offline messaging has been available since the 90's with ICQ... MS isn't just behind, they were ignorant. I hope there is a Mac verison of this, or I will abandon MSN completely for my google chat.
I really like Live Beta and it's a nice change. The only thing that I could sugggest is making a MSN Plus! version for it because that combined with the new messenger would making MSN one of the best messaging software out there(although it already is).
Live Messenger Plus! is already on its way, release along with Windows Live Messenger. It's around this month, can't wait =D
Aye (agg)
which is better msn plus or msn live plz some 1 help and tell me the best 1 to get out of all of them plz
callum
My system crashes when opening up a received photo in WLM 8. So does my contacts
The best Messenger out there! Now I can't wait unitl you shall be alble to message people who use Yahoo. =)
I don't know about the Beta, but Messenger Live crashed my PC TWICE just opening ''My Pictures'' to transfer a file! Bye-Bye Live Messenger! Ever try to get a reasonable relevant response from M$ on an issue!?
msn plus live doesnt work with windows live messenger. Any one know why??
my offline messenging dosen't work! can anyone help?
My System crashes when trying to share in the new WLM!!
Hope they fix it soon!
Actually my system crashes just by opening WLM! Does anyone know what to do about this except wait for an upgrade from Microsoft???
I get an error message every time I try to open WLM....it tells me that a .dll is missing and that I should re-install....i have tried multiple times and it still doesnt work.....can anyone help???
am.. and what happend if a can't sign in ?.. i don't know why .. for a few days the msn was amazing, the new things are great.. but then the msn just don't let me sign in.. help.. please
GUYS ,
I JUST EDITED MY CONTACTS NICKNAME...HOW CAN I CHANGE IT BACK ??